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grains can be reused inside the process and wash residuals should be less contami-

referred the use of absolute (anhydrous) ethanol [24, 38], with a higher price respect his counterpart, the technical ethyl alcohol at 96% (v/v). If the technical ethyl alcohol at 96% (v/v) could be employed instead the more expensive absolute (anhydrous) one during the solvent precipitation of kefiran, a significant impact

At this point, three independent experiments were conducted to compare homogenization versus supernatant alternatives, and the utilization of absolute (anhydrous) versus technical ethyl alcohol as the precipitation agent. When the precipitation experiments were performed using absolute alcohol (anhydrous) a proportion of 50:50 with a material was employed; and when technical alcohol at 96% was used instead the anhydrous ethanol, the technical alcohol: material was mixed in a proportion of 60:40. Each experiment was started with the same fresh

The alternatives shown in Figure 10 do not have significant differences (p > 95%) between them, suggesting that the more suitable and economic way for production of kefiran is to use the supernatant of fermenting broth and technical ethanol as a precipitation solvent (Figure 11B), instead of the homogenization of

Kefiran isolation process was carried out from three 100 ml batches each, yield-

These results are slightly higher than the 3.1 1.3 [37] or 1.91 g/l of kefiran [24] reported recently, and higher to the values between 1.5–3.7 g/l reported previously

The usefulness of the RSM was demonstrated in the search for a condition where the concentration of kefiran is maximized from liquid sweet whey, significantly cheaper than whey powder. It was also possible to satisfactorily replace the "absolute" (anhydrous) ethyl alcohol with the technical-grade ethyl alcohol at 96%(v/v). Both facts represent a remarkable financial saving in the production of the kefiran, which would allow to begin the studies to scale-up the production technology of this

We wish to express our gratitude to the authorities of the Universidad Técnica

del Norte (UTN, Ibarra, Ecuador) for their unconditional support, and also to Dr. Luis E. Trujillo Toledo from the University of the Armed Forces (ESPE, Quito, Ecuador) for his contributions made during the investigation and in the

Another question is associated to the use of solvent precipitation. Several reports

nated that the similar is obtained for the homogenization variant.

over the manufacturing cost of kefiran could be obtained.

Current Topics in Biochemical Engineering

whey and inoculum and was performed as shown in Figure 9.

whole broth and using absolute ethanol as a solvent (Figure 11A).

ing 5.2 0.1 g/l of kefiran in the culture supernatant.

[38, 51].

4. Conclusions

attractive EPS.

42

Acknowledgements

revision of this manuscript.

José Manuel Pais-Chanfrau\*, Lorena D. Carrera Acosta, Paola M. Alvarado Cóndor, Jimmy Núñez Pérez and Milton J. Cuaran Guerrero North-Technical University (Universidad Técnica del Norte, UTN), FICAYA, Ibarra, Imbabura, Ecuador

\*Address all correspondence to: jmpais@utn.edu.ec

© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
